(Aeon) – For those who hear voices, the ‘broken brain’ explanation is harmful. Psychiatry must embrace new meaning-making frameworks

Journalists often depict the [targeted individual] community as a postmodern tragedy – a byproduct of unregulated social media. Here are thousands of very sick people, we’re told, who are just reinforcing each other’s delusions and making each other sicker because they refuse to see psychiatrists. These reports dismiss TIs as promoting one more dangerous conspiracy theory (though I doubt that TIs will ever become a major driver of conspiracy theories, partly because they have unusual experiences that run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists lack).

However, as I talked with TIs and some of the mental health professionals who have taken a sympathetic interest in them, I began to see a different story emerge. What if the TI community is an inevitable reaction to the shortcomings of medical psychiatry itself? (Read More)